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Whats the point if you have to have a cable subscription anyway? So you pay for cable and watch the channel on another box and just don't use the cable box?

You could use the Apple TV at a second location - say a college going kids dorm room or even locations within the house not reached by the cable wire but reached by WiFi. Many cable companies do charge you per TV...
 
You could use the Apple TV at a second location - say a college going kids dorm room or even locations within the house not reached by the cable wire but reached by WiFi. Many cable companies do charge you per TV...

I was going to write this before I went to lunch.
This is what this is for at the moment.

I used to think it was silly (still do to an extent, especially channels like ABC channel) but I could use this (AppleTV) on my basement TV and not have a DVR/HD box or a digital converter box. This way I can get some channels and "onDemand" type viewing.

And funny, the other week when A&E and the others came out with their updated Apps I thought, why not just have these on the AppleTV.
 
...along with my Sony smart tv applications (Amazon, Hulu, NetFlix...all built in).

Right, because we all have smart tv's? For some people like me the Apple TV is great. I'm in the military and bring it and an airport express every time I get sent somewhere, so the more built in apps they add the better. I am pretty content with just Netflix and Hulu, but there's still good content on the new additions.

It's especially great for me right now, because all the channels in Japan I can't understand.
 
Hopefully in before the "why do I need a cable subscription?" complaints.

The model is what it is, and will take time to alter. Putting the infrastructure in place to potentially allow ala carte programming is a good thing. Yes, for now, it's tied to your cable provider, but over time, it's possible that some or all may go with independent subscriptions, depending on contract terms with the cable/satellite companies.

That said, I will whine about Apple needing a proper "App Store" for ATV channels, and opening that up to 3rd-party developers if they really want to get this ball rolling.


People who blame cable for the issue online watching of a network is not separate do not understand it is not cable really but the Network itself trying to profit more people blame cable being expensive but cable is stuck with bunch of Networks that people want but Network telling the cable company to pay up, yeah cable might be expensive but people want all this Networks or don't as you said "ala carte" that would not make it easier at all it might just make it more expensive because a single channel could cost $10 or more this is why like those Time Warner channels that is for Dodgers are having a hard time getting on other cable companies they want to be on their own instead of a tier NFL Network is another example.

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Hopefully Apple finally fixed the issue with Netflix Dolby Surround issue at the same time and the issue with HBO Go authentication issue so finally Charter Communications can access HBO Go for the last 2 years we have been waiting (Charter says it is Apple and HBO for the problem).
 
I would actually pay some money for a la cart access to some of these channels. Until then, I refuse to pay for cable and use my parent's cable login info to get access. Based on my experience, I would guess that there is a significant population of younger people who do the same thing.
 
Still don't get it...How is the Apple TV anything more than an AirPlay accessory for an iOS device if I need a cable subscription anyway to watch this content? I'd rather just stick with my cable's OnDemand features along with my Sony smart tv applications (Amazon, Hulu, NetFlix...all built in).

An Apple TV just duplicates all of that content access and allows me to AirPlay a slideshow from my iPad once every Christmas when I'd actually ever consider doing that.


How many people do you think has a Smart TV, 4K or 3D TV? I have a 1080p 4-5 years old with no online access I would love to get a new TV but do you really think everyone is going to get a new every 4 years? This why I miss Tube TV days there was never a worry about new tech stuff added it was simply basic now you feel the need to have the latest.


Some people still have Tube TVs which is sad because there are cheap simple HD TVs available but those with Tube TVs bitch about how their cable no longer provides analog but I ask who really watches in analog anymore? Some people are too cheap and I realized that here too often who complain about all this new channels that can not be accessed without being a cable subscriber.

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I would actually pay some money for a la cart access to some of these channels. Until then, I refuse to pay for cable and use my parent's cable login info to get access. Based on my experience, I would guess that there is a significant population of younger people who do the same thing.


I am curious at how much cheaper it would be if it was a la cart I am just wondering if having things not in Tiers but choosing your own channel I am pretty sure each channel you want to pay for would be more rather than a package, yes I agree there are too many BS channels on cable I do not watch but really I want to see the price difference that people think would be in a la cart.


Also I am still waiting for internet to be 100% without throttling or capping until yeah lets start blaming at cable.
 
I'm in the same boat as most of the commentors. I can't use most of the channels on my ATV because of no cable subscription (and even then, cable in my area is not one of the systems supported).

I would even be willing to watch commercials on the ATV channels if they would just let me subscribe to the ones I want (HBOGO - I'm talking to you!) Why is it that MLB/NBA,etc can do this and the rest of the channels can't???

It doesn't seem to make a difference. Even those with subscriptions still get mostly no content other than clips. History shows lots of shows but only clips for 90% of them.

With other channels like HBO and PBS you get mostly fully shows/episodes with subscriptions. Here is almost a bait and switch event.
 
Get AMC & Showtime (maybe FX?) and we're cooking

I'm glad to see others want AMC. I'd like AMC and TCM. We have the second tier cable option from Charter and all we really watch are the local channels and side channels, AMC, and TCM.
 
[/COLOR]Hopefully Apple finally fixed the issue with Netflix Dolby Surround issue at the same time and the issue with HBO Go authentication issue so finally Charter Communications can access HBO Go for the last 2 years we have been waiting (Charter says it is Apple and HBO for the problem).

Not to detrail the thread, but I recently switched to uverse from charter and cannot tell you how nice it is to be able to actually use the appleTV HBO Go app. Why it works on the iphone and ipad but not the atv for charter is beyond me!
 
I love the thin aluminum remote! It's gorgeous, feels great in the hand and it's a HUGE improvement over those button cluttered plastic bricks from the cable companies!

All fail and crumble to the mightiness that is the Logitech Harmony remotes.
 
[url=http://cdn.macrumors.com/im/macrumorsthreadlogodarkd.png]Image[/url]


Apple today has added new channels from A&E Networks to its Apple TV, including A&E, The History Channel and Lifetime. Select Apple TV owners will be able to watch episodes from popular TV shows such as Duck Dynasty, Storage Wars, and Project Runway.

These new channels on the Apple TV offer a preview to all users, but full content is only available to cable television subscribers. Currently, the service is available to customers who subscribe to DirecTV, Verizon FiOS, and Cablevision Optimum, with support for additional providers coming in the near future.

The addition of these channels is part of a larger push by A&E Networks to expand their content beyond broadcast TV. Earlier this month, the network updated both its A&E [iTunes Link] and History Channel apps [iTunes Link], letting iOS owners stream live episodes of popular shows to their iPhone or iPad. Similar to the Apple TV, this iOS-based live streaming requires a valid cable subscription.

Article Link: A&E, History Channel, and Lifetime Channels Added to Apple TV

Soooooo 2012! :)
 
Well, let's see:

1. Interrupting ads
2. Product placement ads
3. Subscriptions to channels
4. Pay-per-show
5. ???

Lots of options. No need to continue paying for the fact that in the late-1970s and early 1980s we only wanted to pay for one set of copper wires to be buried under every street in the US by furthering the "cable company" monopolies. They are an anachronism.

And, FYI, if you pay $100/month in cable (the average is right around there), at $2/ep that buys 50 hours of TV per month without a single advertisement, which is over an hour and a half each day. With ads, that buys 720 hours of TV per month (i.e., you can leave the TV on all day and night 24/7) and you still have $100 in your pocket (or $92 if you pay for Hulu Plus), because unlike cable/DirecTV Hulu et al do not have a double-fisted-money-grab where they put ads on your TV and charge you for the privilege (the case could be made that Hulu Plus does, but at less than 10% of the average cable TV bill, it's easily ignored). If you put a little thought into it, you can mix the two models and get everything you currently get from your $100 all-you-can-bear-to-watch subscription for much less, excepting live sports.

Again, the true exception to "you should just cut the cord and move on" is if you need to watch live sports on your own living room TV. There's no alternative there (although if you don't mind venturing out into the scary world there are a number of places you can get your live-sports fix).

that $100 includes internet as well so you would need to spend way less than $50 a month on a la carte to make it worth it

and Hulu's selection is mostly the last few episodes
 
Hey Apple, put some effort on your European customers as well. Oh wait, maybe starting with iTunes Radio might be a good idea :eek:
 
AMC and Discovery, and this is about complete.

Oh yeah...thanks for not allowing me access to A&E, Time Warner. Stay outdated.
 
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How the al-a-carte dream won't work:

I pay $100/month for 200 channels now. I only watch 10 channels. $100/200 = 50 cents per channel. 10 channels I want times 50 cents = $5/month

How the al-a-carte replacement would work:

10 channels I want times about $16 per month each = $160 per month. Apple gets it's 30% off the top and the rest of the players get about $12/month more than they do now.



In no scenario are the masses going to get $5/month or $10/month television with everything we want to watch. If everyone switched to such a system, the whole thing would crumble. We already have cheaply-produced channels that could support $5 or $10/month for the masses. It's called youtube. That's what the future of television looks like if we somehow get what we think we want. Apple won't take the big hit. Cable/Broadband won't take the hit. Who's left if we get $5/month? The Studios. If the Studios take the entire hit, they won't make the money to keep cranking out the stuff "we" love. Instead, we'll get the very cheaply produced stuff like youtube channels and 24/7 Kardashians.
 
I use it quite a bit to second screen with my laptop. And if you don't have a smart tv (like me) it's an easy way to add the same functionality for only $100.

Plus it runs much more quietly than my PS3, which is nice.

That's fine, but I barely use the Sony smart tv apps anyway. Point being, for most people with a cable subscription, there is already more than enough content to watch, so I just struggle to understand the benefit of Apple TV if I have to have a cable subscription anyway to get much out of it.

If it's not saving any of my money from going to Verizon or Comcast, than it just adds more content flexibility to an already overwhelmning menu of content from cable. That said, $99 is a fair price for what it does I suppose. Just doesn't seem like an impressive product to me and never really has. A la carte channel subscriptions are the game changer that we'll probably never see.
 
Not to detrail the thread, but I recently switched to uverse from charter and cannot tell you how nice it is to be able to actually use the appleTV HBO Go app. Why it works on the iphone and ipad but not the atv for charter is beyond me!


But with U-verse you could access HBO Go through ATV right? With Charter it is only through iPhone or iPad with Airplay which is okay but I rather watch directly from ATV sad Charter or Apple does not care.
 
But with U-verse you could access HBO Go through ATV right? With Charter it is only through iPhone or iPad with Airplay which is okay but I rather watch directly from ATV sad Charter or Apple does not care.


Yeah the app works on ATV with uverse, but I came from charter so I know the pain.
 
Would be nice to use these apps but I had to downgrade the OS because 6.1 screwed my ATV's up. Video from my blurays rips were choppy and no DD 5.1 from Netflix. Apple still hasn't addressed this issue as far as I know.

For those who are complaining the point of these apps that require a cable sub, in my case, I have 4 TV's (3 in kids rooms) that I don't have to lease extra cable boxes for at $5-6 a pop. I also don't have to worry about cable runs or wallplate locations. Worth it for me.
 
Wouldn't it make more sense for each channel/app to charge you a sub rate similar to magazines?
TW in NYC charges almost $100 for cable tv and I watch 3 stations.
Would much rather pay direct to those station for a lot less.

Then again- I imagine if that happens- Cable companies will up the internet rate.
They'll get ya one way or another.
 
Wouldn't it make more sense for each channel/app to charge you a sub rate similar to magazines?
TW in NYC charges almost $100 for cable tv and I watch 3 stations.
Would much rather pay direct to those station for a lot less.

Then again- I imagine if that happens- Cable companies will up the internet rate.
They'll get ya one way or another.

most stations are owned by large companies that own lots of stations and refuse to let you pay for only one station. and they don't want to deal with customers directly
 
Excellent thoughts. However, another variable that has a big effect on Cable pricing is sports. Sports entertainment is extremely expensive and part of the reason your cable bill is so high (even if you don't subscribe to a bunch of ESPN channels) is that you're subsidizing a lot of crap that you don't even watch. I'm not sure how big a variable that is... but it is a factor.

Big Telco owns both the monopoly and the broadband pipe through which any competitive (old model disrupting) offerings must flow. The solution is not in a piece of hobby hardware or even negotiating amazing (huge discount) deals with Studios so that Apple can add in it's 30% cut, we get everything we want dirt cheap and those very same Studios take the hit to make both happen; the solution requires some way to get around the "who's owns the broadband pipes?" problem.

"We" keep thinking the problem is deal-making but even if the Studios would give Apple all of their content for free, the middle man between that content in iCloud and us is the broadband provider. Those hungry for deep discount everything al-a-carte need to look for a solution to THAT problem, because while THAT still separates us from iCloud, there's no way those middlemen will allow an Apple or similar to take their revenue stream.

The new model dream will involve us having to pay more- not less- so that all of the other players can be enticed into embracing a new model AND Apple can glom on for it's cut too. Any model where we pay less-to-much-less can't be very interesting to the other players in the chain. Why embrace such a change if the result will be making less money?

And who would take that hit? Apple is wanting to glom on so they ADD to the cost. Broadband (who sells us cable too) have zero desire to lose their cable subscription revenue; if they do somehow, they'll just make up for those revenues with higher broadband costs. "We" believe we should be getting everything we want for nearly nothing. So who's left? If the Studios that make the stuff have to swallow the big loss, why do they keep making the stuff? How do they keep making the stuff? Where does their revenue growth come from to go toward improving the existing quality and taking the big gambles on brand new stuff that might become our favorites in the future?


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Still don't get it...How is the Apple TV anything more than an AirPlay accessory for an iOS device if I need a cable subscription anyway to watch this content? I'd rather just stick with my cable's OnDemand features along with my Sony smart tv applications (Amazon, Hulu, NetFlix...all built in).

An Apple TV just duplicates all of that content access and allows me to AirPlay a slideshow from my iPad once every Christmas when I'd actually ever consider doing that.

That and the fact that cutting out your cable can save you hundreds of dollars a year. I'm actually saving over $1000/year since I cut the cord. For the few speciality cable shows I can't get on Hulu / Netflix or streaming from a channel's app or website... I buy a season pass on iTunes. And I'm STILL way ahead.
 
A-bit off topic, but... Anybody know why Amazon Prime is still not on AppleTV?

Currently using IPad to AirPlay Amazon Prime, but kind of a hassle and don't want to use the IPad for other things when it is streaming (e.g. feel like I am going to interrupt the stream if I do)...

Amazon Prime (AirPlay), Netflix, and ITunes Movies are my most used AppleTV apps. Where is the hide button for the cable subscription required apps.
 
It doesn't seem to make a difference. Even those with subscriptions still get mostly no content other than clips. History shows lots of shows but only clips for 90% of them.

Really!? Just like their iPad apps? If that's the case, what's the point! Wow. I don't think Apple should even allow those crappy apps on AppleTV. You need a cable subscription and even THEN you don't get full episodes of everything?! Useless. It's basically just a marketing app to entice you to subscribe to their cable TV channel... as if we're all still living in the past. I'm about as likely to subscribe to cable TV as I am to buy a Sony Walkman (maybe the Dollar store still sells them). And I'm in my 40's! Anyone in their teens / 20's is about as likely to subscribe to cable TV when they move into their own place as they are to get a landline. Ain't gonna happen.
 
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